224 MODE OF TEAPPING THE GIKAFFE. 



As far as is at present known, the Giraffe is a silent animal, like the 

 eland and the kangaroo, and has never been heard to utter a sound, 

 even when struggling in the agonies of death. When in its native 

 land, it is so strongly perfumed with the foliage on which it chiefly feeds 

 that it exhales a powerful odor, which is compared by Captain Cum- 

 niing to the scent of a hive of heather honey. 



To man it falls an easy prey, especially if it can be kept upon level 

 ground, where a horse can run without danger. On rough soil, how- 

 ever, the Giraffe has by far the advantage, as it leaps easily over the 

 various obstacles that lie in its way, and gets over the ground in a cu- 

 riously agile manner. It is not a very swift animal, as it can be easily 

 overtaken by a horse of ordinary speed, and is frequently run down by 

 native hunters on foot. When running, it progresses in a very awk- 

 ward and almost ludicrous manner, by a series of frog-like leaps, its 

 tail switching and twisting about at regular intervals, and its long 

 neck rocking stiffly up and down in a manner that irresistibly reminds 

 the observer of those toy birds whose head and tail perform alternate 

 obeisances by the swinging of a weight below. As the tail is switched 

 sharply hither and thither, the tuft of the bristly hairs at the extrem- 

 ity makes a hissing sound as it passes through the air. 



Besides the usual mode of hunting and stalking, the natives employ 

 the pitfall for the purpose of destroying this large and valuable an- 

 imal. For this purpose a very curiously-constructed pit is dug, being 

 about ten feet in depth, proportionately wide, and having a wall or 

 bank of earth extending from one side to the other, and about six or 

 seven feet in height. When the Giraffe is caught in one of these pits, 

 its fore-limbs fall on one side of the wall and its hind-legs on the other, 

 the edge of the wall passing under the abdomen. The poor creature 

 is thus balanced, as it were, upon its belly across the wall, and, in spite 

 of all its plunging, is unable to obtain a foothold sufficiently firm to 

 enable it to leap out of the treacherous cavity into which it has fallen. 

 The pitfalls which are intended for the capture of the hippopotamus 

 and the rhinoceros are furnished wnth a sharp stake at the bottom, 

 which impales the luckless animal as it falls ; but it is found by expe- 

 rience that, in the capture of the Giraffe, the transverse wall is even 

 more deadly than the sharpened spike. 



The Giraffe is generally found in little herds, sometimes containing 

 only five or six, and sometimes thirty or forty, members, the average 

 being about sixteen. These herds are always found either in or very 

 close to forests, where they can obtain their daily food, and where they 

 can be concealed from their enemies among the tree-trunks, to which 

 they bear so close a resemblance. 



The flesh of the Giraffe is considered to be good when rightly pre- 

 pared, and its marrow is thought to be so great a delicacy that the 



